The present invention relates to a method of transferring articles.
In particular, the present invention relates to a method of transferring cigarette portions from a dual-rod cigarette manufacturing machine to a filter-assembly machine.
In the tobacco industry, filter-tipped cigarettes are known to be produced by forming, on a cigarette manufacturing machine, two parallel continuous cigarette rods of tobacco enclosed in respective tubular wrappings; cutting each cigarette rod into cigarette portions twice the length of the cigarette portion of a finished filter-tipped cigarette; and transferring the double cigarette portions from the manufacturing machine to respective seats on the input conveyor of a filter-assembly machine to attach the filters.
At present, the cigarette portions are transferred by means of a pickup member having a pair of parallel, side by side seats, which are fed along an annular trajectory tangent to a pickup station on the manufacturing machine and to the seats of a supply unit for supplying the input conveyor of the filter-assembly machine. That is, the cigarette portions are picked up by the seats on the pickup member, which is maintained parallel to itself along said trajectory, and are released into the seats on the supply unit after traveling along a 90.degree. portion of the trajectory, so that the cigarette portions traveling parallel to their respective longitudinal axes in two parallel orderly successions along a first path on the manufacturing machine are arranged in a single orderly succession along a second path on the filter-assembly machine.
The above transfer method involves several drawbacks, by failing to feed the cigarette portions along two separate paths, as required for supplying a two-line filter-assembly machine or two filter-assembly machines arranged side by side.
In a variation of the above method, the cigarette portions are transferred by means of a pickup member having a pair of parallel, offset seats, which are fed parallel to themselves along an annular trajectory tangent to a pickup station on the manufacturing machine and to the seats of a supply unit for supplying the input conveyor of the filter-assembly machine. This method is substantially similar to the previous one, except that the offset arrangement of the two seats on the pickup member provides for arranging the cigarette portions in two orderly side by side successions along the second path, as required for supplying a two-line filter-assembly machine. On the other hand, such a method is unsuitable for supplying two side by side filter-assembly machines or a single filter-assembly machine with only one line.
Yet another transfer method provides, by means of a first and second pickup member, for picking up respective cigarette portions from the respective successions along the first path; feeding the first and second pickup members and respective cigarette portions along a first and second portion of a first and second annular trajectory respectively; and releasing the cigarette portions in a single orderly succession along a second path.
Such a method lacks versatility, by failing to arrange the cigarette portions in two orderly successions along the second path, as required for supplying a two-line filter-assembly machine.